Real world vehicle fuel economy innately depends on driver ability and performance preference. Fuel economy is, in fact, affected substantially by how the vehicle is operated; in many cases, how the vehicle is operated can affect fuel economy more than technological improvements. Driver behaviors that contribute to decreased fuel economy include high acceleration and constant starts and stops, which consume fuel without saving time. Idling is another culprit of decreased fuel economy.
Generally, it is understood that to achieve ideal fuel economy, drivers must consistently maintain smooth acceleration and deceleration and strive to operate the vehicle in a “sweet spot”—an optimal range of engine speed and torque that will save fuel. Prior art systems (such as the systems disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Nos. 2008/0120175 and 2007/0203625) teach processing operating data from prior vehicle operation to create and display driving recommendations that can be used to address specific driving behavior affecting fuel economy, or to assist the driver in learning how to maintain the vehicle in its “sweet spot.” Other systems (such as the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,687,602) use compiled data to characterize the driver and select an appropriate level of engine displacement switching in large displacement engines where operation at full displacement is extremely inefficient.
These types of systems, however, suffer from a number of fallbacks, mainly that they do not provide any means for active compensation. These systems fail to consider that some drivers will not actively respond to coaching; others may have difficulty adapting because of slow reaction times or inexperience. Further, current techniques do not provide any real-time indexing, characterization, or feedback on the driver's actions or the vehicle's status. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a method and system for active driver control, which has these desired features.